Are they going to renew the space shuttles when the ones now are put into retirement?

Last I heard, NASA’s looking at zero space vehicles, thanks to a certain elected official’s massive funding cuts. Needless to say, the guys at NASA are peeved. There is some talk of having the agency fire and monitor weather satellites or something equally banal.

Once the rest of the shuttle fleet is retired, the only reliable way into space is aboard the Soyuz capsules. Naturally, the Russians are going to charge more-than-usual to launch NASA astronauts.

There is yet hope. NASA has a new system of launch vehicles and spacecraft all planned out, based on the successful Apollo designs called Orion; it may one day have the funding to actually make them. And after Burt Rutan gave the world Space Ship One, there is also talk of turning to the private sector, which is not as immediately susceptible to the whims of a community organizer.

The space elevator, a longtime favorite, still faces some technological hurdles before serious development can begin.

The US will be paying passengers of the Russians, until a genius like Burt Rutan can take this out of government hands. Materials science still has a way to go yet before we’ll see the “space elevators” that Arthur C. Clarke described.. China is on the brink of regular earth-to-LEO service also.

Just to clarify, NASA will be using the Soyuz for the time being.

@Nullo The air force on the other hand, which received huge funding benefits in its space program from a certain elected official, will be functional within a few years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37

I also find it ironic that so many people on the right are adamant that the government not control things, and let free market do it, an that budgets are crazy…. Yet when the president cuts what has been a budgeting nightmare (NASA since the mid/late 90s), and leaves it in the hands of the free market save for military ventures….. suddenly thats the wrong plan too?

We will use the Russians space crafts till the space station expires. It will then be deorbited and we will go at least another 20 years without manned space travel. Until we figure out another angle to re-invest.

Maned space travel/exploration has always been too expensive. We got away with it in the 60’s and 70’s because of world politics. And, we have finally lost the momentum/money from the 80’s hype of what the Space Shuttle would enable us to do. It has been a one step forward two steps back.

But on the bright side, unmanned space exploration will go on to do great things.

@tedd I think that it would be more accurate to say that many people on the Right don’t want the government to control people-things; their emphasis tends to be on personal liberty. Since NASA’s sphere of influence stops at NASA, axing it does not actually make for smaller government.

Plus, it was giving us the future, for a while. The Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs meshed beautifully with the Golden Age of Science Fiction. The Space Shuttle, conceived by the one and only Werner von Braun – a superhero among intellectuals – as part of a whole system visiting and living in space, was similarly popular. We were going to colonize space, have our picnics on the Moon, and vacation on Mars.

NASA has fallen far short of the promises that we made ourselves. Given the fantastic nature of our collective dreams, that’s understandable. Some are bitter enough about space travel getting stuck in orbit for the entirety of the Shuttle era that they can send the agency packing. Some, however, see NASA as the tattered remnant of those grand dreams for the future, and are unwilling to let it go. Some are employed in the design, construction, and upkeep of NASA’s behemoths, and will soon be out of a job. And some people are astronauts, who have prepared for vast chunks of their lives to go into space, and now likely never will.

@Nullo Are you one of the people described in your last paragraph?

@FutureMemory A little of the first, a little of the second, and a lot of old science fiction.